English Explanatory Dictionary

cry carrots and turnips

English dictionary entry

Meanings

verb
  1. To be taken through the streets on a cart while being whipped, as a punishment for certain crimes.

Pronunciation

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-cry carrots and turnips.wav

Word forms

cry carrots and turnips cries carrots and turnips crying carrots and turnips cried carrots and turnips

Etymology

Probably referring to the vegetables which spectators would pelt at the person drawn on the cart. Green's Dictionary of Slang suggests that the term is of onomatopoeic origin.

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
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